forthcoming plebiscite, to be held January 13 to determine whether the Saar is to remain under its present League of Nations Commission government, go back to German administration or be taken over by France, fail to result in a vote favoring the German alternative.
The question of whether to make the Jewish issue one of the principal factors in the Saar plebiscite was taken up by the League of Nations Committee of Three to Deal with the Saar Problem at its meeting in Rome last week. At that time the Committee, headed by Baron Pompeo Aloisi of Italy, failed to reach a decision on whether to stipulate definite guarantees that the racial and minority rights of the Jews in the Saar would be protected in the event that the region reverted to German rule, or merely to include the Jews with the other minorities whose rights the League aims to protect in the Saar.
The Committee of Three is to submit its report to the Council of the League of Nations, which has called a special session in Geneva at the end of this month. The report is expected to recommend specific steps which should be taken by the League to protect the rights of the various Saar minorities should the Saar territory be voted back to Germany. The decisions of the Committee were to be adopted in consultation with Geoffrey H. Knox, British president of the League of Nations Saar Governing Commission.
SITUATION PRECARIOUS
The situation of the Jews of the Saar region, should Germany win the plebiscite, would become extremely precarious, warns the Nachrichtenblatt der Synagogen-Gemeinde des Saargebietes.
The publication, commenting on an interview given to the press by the Saar Front Leader Buerckel, in which he is quoted as saying that if the Jews would give up certain customs and withdraw from financial speculation they would not be hurt, states that this moderate view is just a momentary tempering of the true condition.
The Nazis, the paper says, realize that “a too clumsy anti-Jewish policy” would not be tolerated by the world, and this is the cause of the words of reassurance that move many Jews in the region to “raise a shout of joy” at such a moderate policy. The publication warns against the results of this false security. Commenting on the Buerckel interview, it says:
“This statement is unique and worth noting. Especially when we know how grave the Jewish problem is in the Saar, what fateful questions arise, what tragedies are being prepared. Something is keeping our enemies in the Saar from speaking the complete truth.
COURT WORLD APPROVAL
“If they dared to speak openly, we would hear strange things about the way they intend to deal with us. But as things are, inciters become good-natured speakers. They know how the world turns against a too clumsy anti-Jewish policy. Favorable world opinion is needed in the Saar question, so the Jewish problem, too, is treated accordingly.
“Many Jews in the Saar raise a shout of joy at this. They praise the wisdom of such a moderate policy. They talk a lot about the excellent attitude of the moderate section, which must be distinguished from the wild and rowdy anti-Semitism of last year’s edition.
“It is the old inconsequential playing up to an authority which must be fundamentally fought, the old halfway measure, the old mistake of not seeing the wood for the trees. Those who insist on their rights must repulse attacks, even if they are wrapped in cottonwool. We find ourselves in a situation which we cannot get over with empty phrases. Just punishment for false loyalty will not fail.”
In 1289 Moses b. Judah ha-Kohen, chief rabbi of Safed went to Tiberias and pronounced over the tomb of Maimonides an anathema on all who should condemn his writings.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
